My adventure with my first 7 string build.

[aaron_rose]

Here are the renders of the 3d model I am creating right now to help me get ideas about shape and dimension. More than likely I will be using sapele mahogany for my tone wood due to it being cheep and therefor seems suitable for a first whack at this.

I know nothing about this aside from interweb research and we all know that goes.. looks easy!!!! Till ya get in there and find out it isn't!

Basic specs "subject to change"

7 strings
Jumbo Nickle Frets
27.5 inch scale "unsure of radius yet" "Unsure of neck profile"
Flame Maple neck "considering duel trus rods maybe on my next build" Seems like a pain in the ass.
West African Ebony fret wood - Gunna follow balls the the wall approach "Jim at s7" and go 1/4 inch thick
Sepele Tone wood
Whatever looks good and is cheep that I can get my hands on top wood
7 string Unknown Pickup
7 string Unknown Pickup
Hipshot bridge
Locking Sperzel Tuners
Super Strat horns with some additional non traditional shaping.

Anyway cheers and thanks in advance for any tips or comments along the way.

[Empryrean]

Your shape making skills make me a happy boy

[aaron_rose]

Thanks, just copying what I see around me and blending together. Always been a big fan of the super strats sharpness at the horns, liked how it didn't neglect a back cutout and always came dropped. BUT~ I love seeing the new styles, a lot from you guys here at ss.org, been watching your builds for about a year now, but also from blackmachine,mayones,vik,s7,ran just to name a few.

Seeing all this "being a carpenter currently and a X Game Developer 3d animatior/Modeler" and also being a huge ERG enthusiast it seems natural that I take the plunge.

But what you guys get to look at and think "Shit man!! Thats gnar!!!" in the 3d aspects, are probably going to be over ridden by my pilfering of this age honored craft.

[Purelojik]

dude awesome you made a thread on this! glad to see the hipshot pics worked out well. this is gonna be sweet!

[TimSE]

I predict massive amounts of win still to come!

[aaron_rose]

Originally Posted by Purelojik

dude awesome you made a thread on this! glad to see the hipshot pics worked out well. this is gonna be sweet!

Thank you for the pics it helps me visually speaking, shape, size and all that stuff. Your builds have been a great inspiration! I want to take my time with this and do it right as I can. Im starting a guitar teaching school with a friend here in town plus trying to work when I can to keep the roof over my head and write music all at the same time, when it rains it pours!

[aaron_rose]

Had a few minuets so I threw on some knob placement and started separating and cleaning the shapes and geometry. The textures are just as a aid, I intend on doing a high rez pass with real images of real wood in the end of the modeling process.

I am finding that this headstock business is tricky!!! I gotta do some serious soul searching to find a good shape that doesn't suck and lends it's self to the rest of the guitars lines. Uggg!

[aaron_rose]

I used fretfind to spit out a 27.5 inch 26 fret png and just applied it to the geometry. Added rear strap lock and EMG style pups , sorta thinking I might go with them due to the square swimming pool routes being a little less tricky. I'm tired going to bed!

[Miek]

For the headstock, try drawing the strings out beyond the nut, and coming up with different ways of them meeting the tuners. I'm a sucker for straight pull down the headstock.

[aaron_rose]

Originally Posted by Miek

For the headstock, try drawing the strings out beyond the nut, and coming up with different ways of them meeting the tuners. I'm a sucker for straight pull down the headstock.

So their angle doesn't change once leaving their doesn't on the nut? If this is what you mean I agree, also I plan on installing a bar, no the guitar wont have a trem but everything I read says that it helps keep the sucker in tune a little bit more. Once it is on there I may change my mind.

Gotta start thinking about the angle of the headstock, I see how people cut ot off at a "angle" then flip the cutoff "scarf joint I think" and then glue it back on, not sure what tolerances are accepted there. What is to much and what is not enough. I don't like inline when it is reversed. I like 4 over 3, and 3 over 4 but it looks like as far as real-estate goes, this part of the guitar is crucial for a lot of reasons.

[Purelojik]

Originally Posted by aaron_rose

So their angle doesn't change once leaving their doesn't on the nut? If this is what you mean I agree, also I plan on installing a bar, no the guitar wont have a trem but everything I read says that it helps keep the sucker in tune a little bit more. Once it is on there I may change my mind.

Gotta start thinking about the angle of the headstock, I see how people cut ot off at a "angle" then flip the cutoff "scarf joint I think" and then glue it back on, not sure what tolerances are accepted there. What is to much and what is not enough. I don't like inline when it is reversed. I like 4 over 3, and 3 over 4 but it looks like as far as real-estate goes, this part of the guitar is crucial for a lot of reasons.

typically the retaining bar is for straight fender guitar or headstocks that dont have a pitchback angle. the angle compensated for that. as for the scarf joint i did a 15 degree angle and since i cut it by hand, after sanding and planing before gluing it decreased to about a 13-14 degree angle.

take a look at the ONI guitars headstocks they have a straight string pull the more acutre the angle the more chance of breakage as i understand.

also on the drawing might wanna make the inner body curve a bit more defined. its a bit thicker on one side copared to the other. but its nice!

[aaron_rose]

Originally Posted by Purelojik

typically the retaining bar is for straight fender guitar or headstocks that dont have a pitchback angle. the angle compensated for that. as for the scarf joint i did a 15 degree angle and since i cut it by hand, after sanding and planing before gluing it decreased to about a 13-14 degree angle.

take a look at the ONI guitars headstocks they have a straight string pull the more acutre the angle the more chance of breakage as i understand.

also on the drawing might wanna make the inner body curve a bit more defined. its a bit thicker on one side copared to the other. but its nice!

Not sure what part of the guitar you mean. The bass horn? If so, I shaped it outa wack and flattened one side to give it a thorny look on purpose. I love curves but I REALLY love ....ing with them!

[aaron_rose]

Mars by DragonsTeeth on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free

Something I have been working on for a few days now -_- Please add me to yer sound cloud list if you have one and think the tunes aren't mass fail \m/

[ASoC]

Originally Posted by aaron_rose

Not sure what part of the guitar you mean. The bass horn? If so, I shaped it outa wack and flattened one side to give it a thorny look on purpose. I love curves but I REALLY love ....ing with them!

I think he means the waist of the guitar on the treble side. I feel like the waist should be thinner, the lower horn should curve into the body more because the waist looks awkwardly fat on the lower side.

Originally Posted by aaron_rose

Mars by DragonsTeeth on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free

Something I have been working on for a few days now -_- Please add me to yer sound cloud list if you have one and think the tunes aren't mass fail \m/

Sounds pretty cool, followed

[aaron_rose]

Originally Posted by ASoC

I think he means the waist of the guitar on the treble side. I feel like the waist should be thinner, the lower horn should curve into the body more because the waist looks awkwardly fat on the lower side.

I see, ya I can turn on "soft selection" and nudge those verts till its more even, I noticed it after I posted this. Thanks Alex and asoc!



Sounds pretty cool, followed

Thanks! Once I get this one "its not meant to be production quality just a road map for future songs etc" finished I plan on moving into a must faster paced song, got some killer ideas brewing!

[aaron_rose]

Good news, today I found out that there is a specialty wood supplier here in town! I am going to try to go down there tomorrow and look at some Sepele they have, ill bring the camera! O check out their site, Guinness book of world records level worst website ever. hardwoodstoget.com

[aaron_rose]

Here I am wondering "Hmm is is kick ass?"



Then I decided it was in fact very kick ass!



Off topic but this is a round of Rosewood. The last known date of its history was that it arrived in 1971... insane.



Here I am happy and ready to go to work!



The Mahog cost me 25 dollars, it is Sepele. I'm super stoked to start looking for neck wood now!

[HighPotency]

That is some awesome lumber!

Nice to see another SS.org member not far from me.

[aaron_rose]

Originally Posted by HighPotency

That is some awesome lumber!

Nice to see another SS.org member not far from me.

Hell ya! We used to play Tracy's bar in Everette every other month for a couple years. I actually grew up in Lake Stevens \m/

I been reading and looks like it's not a true Mahog, o well, first build who cares about that right! This is a get the mistakes outa the way build learning adventure! I was talking to my good friend Dan down in Seattle and he suggested taht I build three of these exactly the same in an effort to really understand it. Also to get more and more comfortable with the process. Good advise I think.

Still don't have a headstock shape but I think I have an idea once I get some time I will model it out in 3dsMAX and show ya!

[HighPotency]

Still nothing wrong with a nice chunk of sapele, though. The stuff is pretty damn hard and is fairly popular. I think Purelojik is using it as neck wood for a build he's getting close to putting the finishing touches on.

Alder is also a very viable body wood. I picked up a nice slab of 8/4 from Compton in Seattle and it was long/wide enough for a good two bodies. Being in western Washington, alder is by no means hard to come by.

[aaron_rose]

Originally Posted by HighPotency

Still nothing wrong with a nice chunk of sapele, though. The stuff is pretty damn hard and is fairly popular. I think Purelojik is using it as neck wood for a build he's getting close to putting the finishing touches on.

Alder is also a very viable body wood. I picked up a nice slab of 8/4 from Compton in Seattle and it was long/wide enough for a good two bodies. Being in western Washington, alder is by no means hard to come by.

True we have crap loads of alder! I just ran across this, this morning.

How to Build a Guitar in 62 Easy Steps!

[aaron_rose]

Here are a few more pics of the Sepele. It has a crack running from one end but after taking measurements I believe it will get cut off all together or finished being cut away during band sawing out the shape. I have about a foot of extra board length. It measures 2 inches thick which I want to plane to 1 X 1 3/4 again breathing room is good!

My idea is to just cut the sucker in half and hing the two sides together and play with the 4 grain possibilities till i'm happy. Gotta get to work but I will post more as it comes.

[Purelojik]

i love sapele the beauty to price ratio is just amazing. easy to machine. just be careful with drilling straight down due to its grain structure it digs deep and fast. so easy on the downward pressure

[aaron_rose]

Looking for suggestions on neck wood, I want to do a three piece neck was thinking maple with Bubinga? the guitar will not have a top it will be one piece tone wood only, so I want a neck wood that will compliment the Sepele.

A lot of you who's threads I've read have the experience and more importantly the taste that I have yet to develop. I also have yet to decide on fret wood becuase I see the neck wood as a dependency. It all has to be match!

[HighPotency]

Wenge is always nice. Ebony would look good as a fretboard.